Apr 30 2013

From The Space Library

RELEASE: C13-027 - NASA EXTENDS CREW FLIGHT CONTRACT WITH RUSSIAN SPACE AGENCY --WASHINGTON -- NASA has signed a $424 million modification to its contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) for full crew transportation services to the International Space Station in 2016 with return and rescue services extending through June 2017. NASA is facilitating development of a U.S. commercial crew space transportation capability with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from the space station and low-Earth orbit beginning in 2017. This modification to the Roscosmos contract will ensure continued U.S. presence aboard the space station as NASA prepares for commercial crew providers to begin those transportation operations. NASA is committed to launching U.S. astronauts aboard domestic spacecraft as soon as possible. Full funding of the administration's Fiscal Year 2014 budget request is critical to making these domestic capabilities possible by 2017. This firm-fixed price modification covers comprehensive Soyuz support, including all necessary training and preparation for launch, flight operations, landing and rescue of six space station crew members on long-duration missions. It also includes additional launch site support, which was provided previously under a separate contract. The modification will allow for a lead time of about three years Roscosmos needs to build additional Soyuz vehicles. These services will provide transportation to and from the International Space Station for U.S., and Canadian, European or Japanese astronauts.

MEDIA ADVISORY: M13-067 - NASA ASTRONAUT KAREN NYBERG AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS BEFORE SPACE STATION MISSION --WASHINGTON -- NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, a Vining, Minn., native who is making final preparations for a launch to the International Space Station, will be available for live satellite interviews from 7- 8 a.m. EDT Thursday, May 9. The interviews will originate from the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. Before they start, NASA Television will air a video b-roll feed at 6:30 a.m., of Nyberg's mission training and previous spaceflight. Nyberg earned an undergraduate degree from the University of North Dakota and graduate and doctorate degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. A mechanical engineer by training, she served in various engineering roles at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston prior to being selected as an astronaut in 2000. Nyberg previously flew in space as a mission specialist aboard space shuttle Discovery on STS-124 in 2008. Nyberg will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:31 p.m. EDT May 28 aboard a Soyuz spacecraft along with Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency. The trio is scheduled to return to Earth in November. This launch is the second time in two months a piloted Soyuz spacecraft will have launched and docked to the International Space Station within six hours. When the Soyuz arrives at the station, the crew will join Expedition 36 NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, and Russian Federal Space Agency cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Pavel Vinogradov, who launched in March. The crew will participate in several hundred experiments that cross the fields of biology and biotechnology, physical science, and earth science during their mission, which will last nearly six months.